--a vacation.
We're going to start for Europe, week after next."

"Oh, papa, papa, how lovely!" Maida said. "Shall we see Venice
again? But how can I give up my little shop and my friends?"

"Maida going away!" the children exclaimed. "Oh, dear! oh, dear!"
"But Mr. Westabrook, isn't Maida coming back again?" Rosie asked.
"How I shall miss her!" Laura chimed in.

"Take my lamb away," Granny wailed. "Sure, she'll be tuk sick in
those woild counthries! You'll have to take me wid you, Misther
Westabrook--only--only--" She did not finish her sentence but her eyes
went anxiously to her daughter's face.

"No, Granny, you're not to go," Mr. Westabrook said decisively;
"You're to stay right here with your daughter and her children.
You're all to run the shop and live over it. Maida's old enough and
well enough to take care of herself now. And I think she'd better
begin to take care of me as well. Don't you think so, Maida?"

"Of course I do, papa. If you need me, I want to."

"Mr. Westabrook," Molly broke into the conversation determinedly,
"did you ever give Maida a pair of Shetland ponies?"

Mr. Westabrook bent on the Robin the most amused of his smiles.

"Yes," he said.

"And an automobile?" Tim asked.

Mr. Westabrook turned to the Bogle. "Yes," he said, a little
puzzled.

"And did Maida's mother have a gold brush with her initials in
diamonds on it?" Rosie asked.

Mr. Westabrook roared. "Yes," he said.

"And have you got twelve peacocks, two of them white?" Arthur asked.

"Yes."

"And has Maida a little theater of her own and a doll-house as big
as a cottage?" Laura asked.

"Yes."

"And did she have a May-party last year that she invited over four
hundred children to?" Harold asked.

"Yes."

"And did you give her her weight in silver dollars once?" Mabel
asked.

"Yes."

"And a family of twenty dolls?" Dorothy asked.

"Yes, you shall see all these things when we come back," Mr.
Westabrook promised.

"Then why did she run away?" Betsy asked solemnly.

Everybody laughed.

"I always said Maida was a princess in disguise," Dicky maintained,
"and now I suppose she's going back and be a princess again."

"Dicky was the first friend I made, papa," Maida said, smiling at
her first friend.

"But you'll come back some time, won't you, Maida?" Dicky begged.

"Yes, Dicky," Maida answered, "_I'll_ come back."

Yes, Maida did come back. And what fun they all have, the Little Six
in their private qu